FAQs

About Our Services

Why Universal Web Design

Why should I choose UWD?

Universal Web Design is a leading digital marketing agency that is focused on you as the customer, with tailored services designed for small businesses. All services are sustainable and affordable, making Universal Web Design the perfect fit for your company. Universal Web Design are Google Partners, based in Colchester, Essex and work with over 250 businesses. If you are looking to generate more business through the internet, you have come to the right place!

Do You Have Offices?

The days of working from a bedroom are long gone and good riddance. We have 1,000 sqft offices with ultra-fast internet speeds and long panes of glass either end of the office in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom

Web Design

How long will it take you to make my website?

Typically we advise circa 6 weeks for a new website build, although, this is provided when we have all of the information supplied by the client from the outset, including images and website content. Should we need to produce and source those elements, the project could take slightly longer. If we are waiting for the client to provide those elements, the website completion date could be pushed back as far as the client takes to provide us with the materials we need. Our services are non-pressured and are designed to suit you as the client as best we can. Please note that advanced projects and developments to an existing website could take longer dependent upon complexities.

Can I make changes to my website once it is up and running?

You certainly can. Universal Web Design understands the importance of being able to dip in and out of your own website with the ability to make changes quickly and easily. This is why all websites built by Universal Web Design come with a content management system (CMS) built in. A CMS enables you to login and edit your website with ease from any location in the world. All you need is internet access. It is that simple!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is SEO?

SEO also referred to as search engine optimisation, is a specialist practice implemented to optimise the contents, code and reputation of a website for the benefits of search engine users i.e. people and search engines themselves. Essentially, SEO is implemented to enhance the search ranking of pages within a website for search terms prospective customers or users are likely to enter to find the information, products or services you offer. There is no fast track route to the top, other than through ongoing improvements to a website both on and off-site. At Universal Web Design, we offer afree website audit to all businesses. This is a great tool for any business, and as per all our marketing services, our minimum term for SEO is 12 months.

How long does SEO take?

There is no straight answer as to how long SEO will take, however, the measurements and metrics used are all logical, measured and monitored on an ongoing basis. If SEO were easy, spammy websites with low-quality contents would rule, as they did several years ago. Search Engine policies for ranking and indexing web pages has subsequently needed to devise advanced algorithms to assess, monitor and index web pages based on trust and relevance. Both aspects take the time to master and in some instances you could experience great results in 3 months where other businesses with more competition will need 24 months. There is no quick fire answer, however, the less competitive the search term is, the easier it is for a web page you own to rank highly for.

Hosting

Q. Can I Host My Website With Universal Web Design?
A. Yes you certainly can, we host over 150 websites and welcome any business to host with us.

Q. How Is Your Hosting Different To Others?
A. Unlike most other website hosts, we have a team of in-house developers to attend to any issues that may go wrong, we backup all websites on an ongoing basis and ensure that your website is online with an average uptime of 99.9%. Lastly, your monthly fee does not increase as you and your business grows.

Q. Can I Host My Website Elsewhere?
A. Yes, you can, however, we recommend not to as this can cause future developments and ongoing maintenance to be more time consuming due to access limitations and delays in correspondence, subsequently, we always recommend to host your website with us. Emails are the only aspect we would consider suggesting an IT company if necessary.

Q. What Is The Hosting Minimum Term?
A. Our minimum term for website hosting is 24 months and this is to avoid the timely costs of moving websites and or emails from server to server. If you wish to cancel or move your website at anytime, you simply need to pay for the total number of months outstanding, if applicable, plus our one-off transfer fee.

Website Management

Q. What is Website Management?
A. Website management is a service designed to help those in need of website alterations as and when they need for a fixed monthly fee. Website alterations can include changing; images, colour schemes, text, logos, links, and basic design alterations. It is the customer’s responsibility to ask for alterations as and when you need.

Q. Website Management vs Website Development Packages?
A. Website management is responsive to your requests. If you require alterations and changes to your website for a set monthly fee, this is the package for you. Website developments is a proactive service whereby our developers will allocate time to design, develop and improve your website each month with new features, functions and layouts. Website development packages provide a high level of development services, whereas website management packages include basic website alterations.

Q. Website Management vs Website Maintenance
A. Website management is a responsive service designed for small businesses in need of website alterations to their website as and when they need. The service is reactive and the responsibility is with the customer to ask for what changes they would like made to their website.

Online Marketing

Q. What is Online Marketing? A. Online marketing is a cost effective, digital means of promoting and sharing the services and products your business offers to prospective customers and existing clients. Online marketing is arguably the best form of generating new and repeat business through the internet.

Q. Would My Business Benefit From Online Marketing? A. If you are even contemplating whether online marketing would benefit your business, you certainly need to learn a lot more about marketing and to assess your business model urgently. As a business owner, you will be selling to someone. We all sell to people and marketing is a means of communicating what you offer to people on a personal and or mass scale basis. Subsequently, online marketing is applicable to every business.

Q. How Involved Should I Be A. Marketing is a specialist area and most businesses rely on us to handle all aspects for them. This tends to work best as it gives us free reign over the best topics and subjects to promote. It also ensures your content goes out on time without delay with one less task for you to manage.

Q. What Happens If I Do Not Like The Content? A. If you do not like the contents which have been produced for you, we will either adapt or re-write the content accordingly to ensure you are happy.

Q. Can I Afford Online Marketing? A. At Universal Web Design, our online marketing packages are extremely cost effective to ensure your business benefits from the highest potential returns on your investment. Having worked with businesses of all sizes, locations and almost every industry, we can almost guarantee that online marketing works very effectively indeed. After all, if you truly believe in what you sell, surely you would want to tell everyone about it?

Q. What is Google Analytics? A. Google Analytics is a free tool offered by Google to track, assess and monitor the performance of your website and or online marketing activities effectively online. Google Analytics is highly regarded as one of the best tracking software you can use and at Universal Web Design, we could not agree more. This is why we offer free integration of Google Analytics into the website of any client we work with.

Q. My Google Analytics Has Stopped Working? A. Google updates its API and or tracking code on a reasonably frequent basis. Consequently, your tracking code can need updating from time to time. This is not an issue, however, you will need to inform a member of the team at Universal Web Design. Once we have been informed by you, one of our search technicians, web designers or online marketers will have your Google Analytics tracking code updated in no time.

Q. Do I Receive Reports? A. Unlike most online marketing providers, here at Universal Web Design, we do offer free reports. We actually invest circa £500 per month into advanced reporting systems for the benefit of our clients, dependent upon what services you have with us will result in which system reports you will have access to.

All of our clients receive Google Analytics reports and if you are not currently receiving these, please do let us know as Google updates it’s code regularly in addition to limiting the number of times an automated report is issued. We also use an advanced online marketing and SEO reporting system as well. If you do not receive these your online marketing manager can provide you with an update.

Q. When Am I Billed? A. Similar to a mobile phone contract, you have issued an invoice on the 28th day of each month or c. 30 days from the date you agreed to take out marketing services with us.

Q. What Happens if My Content Does Not Go Out On Time? A. In any instance that your content does not go out in any given month, in almost all instances this would be due to the client not coming back to us promptly, you will receive credits. Similar to some customer focused mobile phone contracts, your data or calls roll over into the next month. As a customer-focused digital agency, the same applies to your marketing services. Subsequently, you are never at a loss and we ensure this is never the case. Any content you did not receive or have distributed in any given month will be added to your account to be used as and when you wish.

Q. What Is The Minimum Term? A. Unless stated otherwise, the standard minimum term for online marketing at Universal Web Design is 12 months. This is due to us not charging high setup fees and to cover all of our invested time needed for research, account setup, profile management, reporting integration, general administration, internal meetings, billing, client meetings, client calls, emails, customer support, data input, graphic design and much more. We also incur fees and obligations to minimum term licenses and management suites. There is a lot involved with managing any account we take on. Hence the minimum term.

Q. Can I Pause A Service? A. Although we highly recommend against pausing any marketing activity as; customers may assume you have gone bust, Google and other search engines will see activity drop, your business could lose sales and consequently revenue, in addition to this being very costly for us to administer for you. Therefore, should you wish to pause a service, we would need to charge an admin fee of £120 per service. Please also note that invoices will continue as normal and that all work we produce for you or you are owed will be provided once you wish to re-activate your marketing activities. As stated at the beginning, we advise against this as marketing is ongoing, after all marketing is your business engine.

Q. What Is The Notice Period? A. The standard notice period at Universal Web Design for online marketing services is 60 days, of which our minimum term is 12 months.

Q. What Is The Cancellation Process? All cancellation requests need to be completed online through our online cancellation form. Once completed, our operations manager will be in contact to discuss any disgruntlement with you to assess whether there is anything we can do to overcome your concerns. If you are happy to continue on the basis such points raised will be addressed, great! If not, then the operations manager will inform both the billing and online marketing departments of your cancellation date, reasons for cancellation and the final date to carry any works out up until.

Mobile Applications

Q. What Is The Minimum Term For An App?
A. We are aware our services are very cost effective and to ensure we are always able to offer very financially palatable services, we require some commitment from you as a client to avoid us any lost time. Subsequently, we require a very fair and reasonable minimum term commitment of just 12 months for all mobile app orders.

Q. Can I Cancel My Mobile App?
A. We hope you never want to leave, however, we understand circumstances or requirements can change and if you ever wish to do so, you are most welcome to. In the event you wish to cancel our mobile application services, we require 60 days written notice in addition to a dismantling fee of £60 to address all subsequential matters and elements for you.

Please note that we will require cancellations in writing to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

Suspend Service

Q. Can I Suspend My Website? A. Of course, we do not want anyone to suspend their website with us, however, sometimes business circumstances change and if this is the case, we simply require 60 days notice in addition to your minimum term, plus a website suspension administration fee of £60. This to cover our time carrying out this request for you. Please note that you will continue to be invoiced for website hosting as your files and database will still need to be hosted.

Q. Can I Suspend My Online Marketing Services? A. We do not wish for any business to want or need to suspend their online marketing services with us, however, we do understand that business circumstances can change. If you wish to suspend your online marketing services, we will require you to complete our online suspend a service form as shared below. Please note that we require 60 days notice in addition to the minimum terms of 12 months for any service suspensions. Please note you will also be charged £60 per service as an administration fee to carry out such requests for you.

Please note that we will require a service suspension form completion for each service to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

Q. How Do I Suspend A Service? A. You can request to suspend your service by going to our Suspend Service(https://universalwebdesign.co.uk/suspend-service/) page and filling out the form.

Cancellation

Q. Can I Cancel My Website? A. Of course, we do not want anyone to cancel their website with us, however, sometimes business circumstances change and if this is the case, we simply require 60 days notice plus a cancellation fee of £120 to cover our time in dismantelling everything for you plus administration time.

Q. Can I Cancel My Online Marketing Services? A. We do not wish for any business to want or need to cancel their online marketing services with us, however, we do understand that business circumstances can change. If you wish to cancel online marketing services, we will require written notice of this in the form of a cancellation form completion using the link shared below. Please note that we require 60 days notice for any and all cancellations in addition to the minimum term of 12 months as per all our online marketing services, as this provides us with time to address any issues, if there are any, find new customers to fill your allocated slot and as we work in advance on all accounts, to ensure we are not at a loss in any instance of our time or the systems we use. Please also note that we charge a £120 per service cancellation fee per service to cover our time and administration to fulfill your requests. This is also to avoid chop and change decisions that some inexperienced business owners may make and us as a company must avoid as this is very costly in wasted time. Afterall, marketing is an ongoing requirement for all businesses.

Please note that we will require any and all service cancellations in writing in the form of a service cancellation form completion to avoid any and all potential misunderstandings. Once completed, we will complete the cancellation process for you and issue relevant invoices accordingly.

Q. How Do I Cancel A Service? A. You can request a cancellation by going to our Cancel Service(https://universalwebdesign.co.uk/cancel-service/) and filling out the form.